Archive for December, 2006

Last week my mom had made me promise I’d use my time in Lahore effectively – meaning I’d buy the shoes I need for my brother’s wedding (5 pairs of shoes, mind you, all color coordinated with my clothes!) Lahore is, apparently, the place to buy shoes, probably because of all the Lahori aunties that have nothing better to do than making new clothes and then getting shoes to match. Anyway, Lahore’s where ECS and Stylo reign supreme (both are shoe shops, for the non-Lahori’s) and that’s where my mom wanted me to go.

The past few days, I’d been lazy. It’s cold out, I’d rather check my email, I’m not in the mood. But Sunday’s getting closer, and I needed to buy the shoes before then if I had any hopes of setting foot in my parents house, so today – my third day back in Lahore – my roommate turned to me and said, “wanna go shoe shopping?”

We set off from LUMS, walked to a coffee shop, got a couple of things to eat (we’re both the no-breakfast type of people, and had even skipped lunch today) and finally got on the bus. 15 minutes later, we were at the shop itself – ECS.

ECS DHA is a landmark. The shop originally started from Liberty Market – your average shoe shop, except the salesmen seemed like they were jacked up on caffiene. Hyper active, throwing shoe boxes at the speed of light. Their shoes were great, and they pretty much dominated the market, with people coming from other cities to buy their shoes. The first shop was a little more than a hole-in-the-wall. Very cramped and constantly filled with people, which meant there was barely enough oxygen for all those in it. They soon realized the error of their ways, and moved to DHA and into a huge store with sofa’s and enough space for a wedding party. Business boomed.

Anyway – that’s besides the point – I’m just trying to explain why I first went into ECS. It’s a landmark. I had to. Going into any other shop first would be unacceptable. I can just imagine my mom going, “You went to Stylo?”, had I gone into Stylo first.

However, the salesmen in the DHA branch are apparently not as enthusiastic as the ones in Liberty – or maybe the coffee here is worse – since no one came to bug me, ask me what I needed, or show the slightest concern. After about 10 minutes of just wandering around, I came to the realization that I didn’t like anything but unfortunately, one of the salesmen had by now spotted me, and so, thinking, “this is ECS!” I started around the shop with him following me and yelling out orders. Three shoes later (one I hated, two I loved but had too big feet for), he figured me for a lost cause and left. That’s when I turned to my roommate and said, let’s go to Stylo.

So off we went – it’s right next door to ECS – kinda like comparing Jammin Java to Hobnob (Hobno is hugely successful, Jammin Java not so much).

The salesmen here were apparently taking lessons from the ECS Liberty guys – 20 minutes later, the entire stock room was at our feet. Everything in pink that is (I have tea pink clothes, go figure!) – I’m sure the guy in the stock room thought Barbie had landed in the building.